How to calculate your NHI premium

If you have stayed in Taiwan for more than 6 months, then for sure you are aware of the National Health Insurance (NHI) program of the Taiwan government. Usually after 6 months of receiving the ARC, you will also be able to apply for NHI. So if you’ve stayed for longer than a year, then you probably already have the NHI card (健保卡).

When I first arrived in Taiwan, I was still a student, so my school processed the NHI on my behalf. And since I was on scholarship, they also paid the NHI premiums for me. So it was only after I graduated and started to work that I realized we have to pay for NHI.

At the start, I was so confused on how to calculate for NHI premiums. After doing enough research, I put together this information to make it as simple and easy to understand. So if you’re interested to know how to calculate for your NHI premium, you can continue reading below.

To calculate for your NHI premium, you need to identify these three steps:

1. Your actually monthly gross salary

2. Your salary basis (based on payroll bracket table in NHI)

3. Your contribution ratio based on your category

If you are working, NHI payments will be split between you, the employer and/or the government.

For example, you are working in Company X with a monthly gross of NTD40,000 (STEP 1) .

Based on this, we can get your salary basis in the payroll bracket table (like below)

This means your Actual Monthly (NTD40,000) will be calculated as NTD40,100 (STEP 2) for salary basis.

Then, we identify your contribution ratio based on your category. Since you are working for a company, then you are in Category 1, and the NHI payments will be shared between:

• YOU: 30% (STEP 3)

• your employer: 60%

• and the government 10%

And then based on your Category, you can use the formula of NHI.

Salary Basis (from Step 2) x insurance premium rate (fixed value by NHI at 5.17%) x contribution ratio (from Step 3) x how many dependents (only 1 if you are single/no kids)

From our example, this will be:

NTD40,100 (from Step 2) x 5.17% (fixed value by NHI) x 30% (from Step 3) x 1 (only 1 if you are single) = NTD622

For those in Category 1 under employees of public or private owned enterprises and organizations, you don’t need to calculate these manually. You can just see the table calculation by matching your Bracket (from Step 2).

Usually foreigners fall under this category, so just click the link to see the table and match according to your bracket 🙂 

As you can see, our calculation matched with the one showed in the table. Not only that, but you can also see how much the company and the government subsidizes for your NHI.

If you are unemployed (e.g. student or looking for work), you don’t need Step 1 and Step 2, just go directly to Step 3.

Step 3 will identify as Category 6: Other individuals. Thus, NHI payments will be split between you (60%) and the government (40%). Based on the formula:

Average premium (set by NHI at NTD1,377) x contribution ratio (from Step 3) x how many dependents (only 1 if you are single/no kids)

NTD1,377 (set by NHI) x 60% (from Step 3) x 1 (only 1 if you are single) = NTD826

So if you’re like me who wants to calculate all the fees taken out of my salary, then I hope you found this helpful. But if you’re still confused on your premium payment, email me and I’ll help you figure it out.

Until next time!

再見~